Stoke City missed the chance to go above Swansea in the table when they let a first-half lead slip and allowed their opponents to take control of the second period. Garry Monk can now add surviving a wet Wednesday in Stoke to winning a Welsh derby as his first two managerial achievements, though in truth Stoke were a shadow of their usual selves and seemed to be affected by the weather more than their visitors. Swansea did almost all of the attacking after the interval, and nearly gained full reward when Jonathan de Guzman forced a good save from Asmir Begovic in the closing minutes.

"We grew into the game," Monk said. "We were magnificent in the second half, we pressed really well. I know this side has character, I've been with these players long enough. It just needs bringing out." Mark Hughes took issue with a couple of refereeing decisions but not the overall outcome. ""It wasn't one of our better days, we didn't play particularly well," the Stoke manager said. "Swansea did, and our only consolation is that a few weeks ago we might have lost that game."

Stoke went ahead just over a quarter of an hour into the game when Peter Odemwingie struck a post and Peter Crouch tucked away the rebound, deservedly as it happens since the scorer had supplied the pass to set up the initial shot. Swansea had made a lively start but were lucky not to go two down a minute later, when Marko Arnautovic attempted what David Moyes would doubtless describe as a "worldy" from the edge of the area and was only denied by a fine reaction stop from Michel Vorm.

The gusty weather that had necessitated two pitch inspections and a delayed kick-off relented soon after the game started and Swansea began to rally.

José Cañas put a chance high and wide at the far post from a Wayne Routledge cross, before Nathan Dyer broke forward and fired a shot narrowly wide. Charlie Adam was rightly booked for a barefaced trip on Dyer, an incident that led to a short outbreak of pushing and shoving during which Ashley Williams also received a caution for manhandling Jon Walters.

By the interval Swansea were doing most of the attacking, with Stoke content to sit on their lead. On a wilder than average night the sprinklers watering the pitch at half-time seemed a tad unnecessary, particularly as their unexpected appearance from ports in the pitch surprised and further drenched a hardy party of schoolchildren attempting a mini-football exhibition.

Routledge got into a good position right at the start of the second half but was forced too wide, Cañas could not connect properly with a decent shooting opportunity and when Wilfried Bony attempted a shot on the turn from close range, Ryan Shawcross stuck his face in the way.

Bony, who saw another second-half effort fly narrowly wide, was gradually beginning to cause a few problems for the Stoke defence though it was Chico Flores who supplied the equaliser with a glancing header after Pablo Hernández had returned a half-cleared corner. It was not the most powerful of headers but the direction was perfect, leaving Begovic little chance of keeping it out of his bottom left corner.

Hughes made a double substitution almost immediately, sending on Steven N'Zonzi and Oussama Assaidi, though Swansea had found the encouragement they needed and continued to press more effectively and pass more accurately. Reverting to type slightly, Stoke began to look most dangerous at set pieces, and with Adam's delivery there was always a chance. A free-kick on the hour only just eluded Shawcross and N'Zonzi, and from the next Bony was back in his own area to help out.

Bony turned up in the Stoke area next with a chance to win the game from eight yards out, only to see Begovic get a hand to his goalbound shot to allow Shawcross to tidy up on the line. John Guidetti was on the pitch by that stage but on the few occasions he came close to getting involved the Manchester City loanee's first touch let him down.

While it was that sort of night for Stoke, for whom Crouch had a late penalty appeal turned down after being tripped by his own team-mate, Swansea are clearly no longer the soft touch they were beginning to appear. "It was a swirly night but it was far from unplayable," Monk said. "I think we proved that."